Autocracy thru Artful Artifice

Some people understandably doubt previous generations, regulations or even science. Coal mines in Alberta are no different. From allowing cigarette smoking in restaurants and on airplanes to building vehicles with plate glass and no seat belts, human history is littered with tombstone technology while forwarding scientific advancement.

The Grassy Mountain coal mine shut down in the early eighties. The operation closed its doors walking away from the mine leaving a mountain of destruction and decades of selenium leaching. In the Oldman River at Fort Macleod, over 80km downstream, selenium levels, which would be zero in untouched landscapes, measure 0.6 ųg / litre. The Federal guidelines are no more than 1.0 ų g / litre for fish habitat.

Forty-five years after closing and the selenium levels, which bioaccumulates, are still high 80km away from the site. I spoke with a biologist about how to reclaim the area and he was unambiguous, “leave it!” Any form of incursions into the eastern slopes create damage causing many issues downstream even supposedly well intended reclamation efforts. From roads, trails and railways creating unintended runoff to destruction of water cleaning and cooling ecology, Alberta’s eastern slopes generate water delivered in the Elbow, Bow, and Oldman Rivers to name a few.

Southern Alberta is the driest, most arid region in Canada. The west winds rip moisture from the soil and we (I live in southwestern Alberta) have the least rainfall and or snowfall in Canada. These are the reasons so many Albertans are fighting to stop proposed coal mines, to protect the water we do have.

In June of 2021 a Joint Review Panel of experts from the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) and Federal Ministry of Environment and Climate Change rendered a decision to reject the Grassy Mountain coal mine proposal after holding and hearing. These experts heard from both sides, educated experienced people provided expert evidence, listened and made their decision to reject the proposal. This wasn’t a group of environmentalists although yes, environmentalists were included. The hearing included all directly affected Albertans pro and con.

Then, in 2022, less than a year after the JRP Hearing and Decision, UCP leadership candidate Danielle Smith floated the idea that a vote might help revive the Grassy Mountain coal mine in the Crowsnest Pass region. This was Danielle Smith’s first political interference in Northback’s proposed metallurgical coal mine.

Smith has said repeatedly she stands by the AER. So why undermine our regulator by suggesting a local vote might somehow override a regulatory decision?

Making this contradiction worse is the fact that Smith invited a vote in the Crowsnest Pass, except the rejected Grassy Mountain mine proposal is 98% in the Municipality of Ranchland who absolutely opposes a new coal mine. It is like Calgary holding a vote to open a legalized red light district in Cochrane.

1,973 local residents in the Pass voted in favour of Grassy Mountain. Residents who only stand to gain from the proposal, no one downstream and more shockingly, no one from the Municipality where the mine is located were considered. Both Premier Danielle Smith and Energy Minister Brian Jean have since referred to the Pass straw poll when extolling the virtues of coal mining in our watershed.

In 2025 Smith lowered the threshold for citizen initiated referendum because as Smith put it, “I support citizen-initiated referenda. I think it’s really important that people have their say. The rules are out there, and I will watch with great interest.”

It is important to note that while meeting with Danielle Smith, Corb Lund, who launched a Water Not Coal Petition that Smith told Lund she needed editorial powers over the question because, we have particular outcomes we want so we need to frame the questions to our liking.

Danielle Smith wants Albertans who agree with her to have their say. Math, science and facts be damned.

Since May of 2020, when Jason Kenney rescinded the Lougheed era 1976 Coal Policy, thousands of southern Albertans have been fighting foreign coal speculators and our own government to stop this as it threatens our water. I am sorry Danielle Smith was too busy making podcasts promoting chemtrails and the health benefits of cigarette smoking to observe the Grassy Mountain hearing details. If Smith genuinely stands by the AER, then why challenge their authority with this sham “vote”?

Fast forward to last week when Elections Alberta discounted thousands of Albertans’ signatures, ultimately rejecting Corb Lund’s petition to hold a referendum on coal mining in Alberta’s watershed.

Elections Alberta (EA) accepted over 200,000 Albertan signatures who wanted a vote to stop coal mines. EA used a statistical sampling method, discounted thousands of Albertans then extrapolated to estimate the number of authorized signatures was 3% lower than required.

Apparently, those statistical samples were completed by random phone calls from an unaddressed phone number asking for personal information. How would you have responded to those calls, especially after Albertans just suffered the single largest data breach in Canadian history?

Science, ecological and economic review of Grassy Mountain by experts, forget it. 172,000 Albertans asking for a province wide vote on coal mines, no thanks. 1,973 people in the Pass and Danielle Smith want coal mining in our watershed, Autocracy thru Artful Artifice.

Blaine Moen is a landowner and advocate in Southern Alberta.